Standing tall

IT ISN'T EASY BEING Teresa Cheung Siu-wai, the former Mrs Kenny Bee. The latest war of words has the 39-year-old socialite-cum-boutique owner embroiled in a row over whether or not she gatecrashed the recent bash held for Sex And The City actor Chris Noth at the Kee Club. Party sponsor Christian Dior insists she did; Cheung is adamant she did not.

'For the record, I am a member of the club, which had a quota of 20 invitations for the event, and I was invited by David Mok, one of the owners,' she states firmly. 'Why do I need to gatecrash parties when I get more than enough invitations? I've always been on the party A-list and because I have little time outside work I have to be very selective about which events I attend. I have never had to defend that until now.'

Despite a ban on all paparazzi apart from Christian Dior's own photographers, pictures of Cheung chatting intimately with Noth were splashed all over the pages of Ming Pao Weekly magazine the following day. But contrary to rumours she was paid to pose, she insists she neither tipped off the illicit photographers nor smuggled them in with her.

'I wish I was paid for every paparazzi picture printed of me in the newspapers - I'd be living a really comfortable life,' she jokes. 'There were three 'checkpoints' to get through before you reached the party itself and because of the scarcity of invitations I couldn't even bring in a date. I did see the Ming Pao photographers in the crowd before I went into the club, but they weren't allowed to follow me in as the rumours imply. It wasn't until the middle of the party that I saw one of them and he told me that he'd got in while nobody was watching. The social girl from Eastweek was also there and snapped my picture when I walked in - am I going to start hearing that I sneaked her in too?

'During the party, the HBO camera crew asked me to do an interview for them. As soon as the interview was finished, its co-ordinator introduced me to the president of HBO as well as Chris Noth. Do you think a gatecrasher would get this kind of VIP treatment?'

Cheung likens the media attention to 'living in a fishbowl' or having seven million in-laws scrutinising and criticising constantly. She has been snubbed by former friends and knows there are people who'd be delighted to see her fall. 'It's only natural,' she says. 'There are fans who see me as an icon and at the same time I have to accept that people who don't even know me will spread lies about my life and fabricate stories in the media.'